InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Bearers of the Shards ❯ The Battle For the Jewel ( Chapter 10 )

{#} {#} {#} THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS {#} {#} {#}

{#} {#} Chapter 10: The Battle For the Jewel {#} {#}

The corridors abruptly became very difficult to traverse. This, Inuyasha surmised, was because this particular wing of the Temple was collapsing. He swore to himself that he'd make this quick, because he had no desire to be buried under rubble twice in one day. He knew he was getting closer to Sesshoumaru, though, because the spirits in his way grew thicker with every step he took.

He was beginning to notice something strange: the Youkai souls were not approaching him at a distance any closer than the radius of Tetsusaiga's kenatsu. It was almost as if the sword were shielding him from them.

When at last Inuyasha came to the epicenter of all the commotion, he found himself literally right under his brother, staring up at an enormous white-ruffed chest and fierce Inu Youkai's head. The head lowered, drooping toward him, and for a moment Inuyasha thought his brother had recognized him, but then he saw in the red eyes, narrowed to slits, a look he knew well. He lowered Tetsusaiga, backing away slowly.

The spirits surrounding Sesshoumaru in a thick cloud also seemed to back away, and before Inuyasha's eyes the massive demon sank back into man-shape and began to fall.

The look in Sesshoumaru's eye was that of a man who knew he was to die and who embraced it at the last. Inuyasha, who was no stranger to death, knew it for what it was.

The Inu Youkai struck the ground hard, cracking the blood-slicked stone. His limbs splayed limply as he went completely still. The spirits hovered above, at the place where the roof had collapsed to reveal the gray, cloudy sky beyond. They didn't seem to be threatening him at the moment, so Inuyasha approached the prone figure lying on the floor.

Sesshoumaru's hair fanned out beneath his head, which was turned ever so slightly in Inuyasha's direction. A faint ray of sunlight caught the red glint of the Inu Youkai's eye.

Inuyasha approached him cautiously. He seemed to be mostly dead, but you never knew with Sesshoumaru, whose face was naturally pale and deadpan anyway.

Boldly, Inuyasha nudged Sesshoumaru's arm with his foot. The red eye glared fixedly up at him, but his brother didn't move. Inuyasha planted the foot on the fuzzy, tail-like thing, which had come half-unwrapped from the Inu Youkai's shoulder. Inuyasha had no tail, but he was sure this kind of treatment would hurt if you had one. Thus when his brother still didn't move, nor did the eye change its regard, he was reassured that no surprise attacks were pending.

He slung Tetsusaiga over one shoulder, glaring down at his half-dead sibling.

"If you think I'M digging the shard out of you, FORGET IT!" Inuyasha bellowed. "YOU'RE going to stay alive just long enough to take it out YOURSELF!"

He walked around to the prone figure's feet, muttering, "Fucking arsehole, stowing it in such a stupid place..."

Still grumbling about what else Sesshoumaru could shove up his ass, he took hold of one ankle and began dragging his brother across the stone floor. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing, but it was an alternative eminently preferable to going digging for the shard. On the other hand, Inuyasha wasn't quite sure just how he was going to make Sesshoumaru give him the shard.

He had just begun pondering which body part Sesshoumaru was likely to miss most when he saw the crowd of gray-robed men blocking the corridor. The Wise had come in silently and without warning. Now they stood watching him.

Inuyasha kept walking, fully intending to mow them all down with Tetsusaiga with his right hand while dragging Sesshoumaru with his left. He certainly wasn't about to let them get hold of the shard, and dragging his brother across the rough ground by the ankle was sort of satisfying.

The Wise didn't attack him, but neither did they clear out of his way when he reached them. Experimentally, he swiped at them with his sword. The sorcerers nearest him broke rank, but two of their number fell to the blade's kenatsu. Their comrades didn't spare them so much as a glance, but began a low, thrumming chant that set Inuyasha's teeth on edge.

"DON'T move, then," Inuyasha jeered at them, grinning fiercely. "It'll make you fucking easy to cut down." But despite his bravado he was unnerved. The Wise didn't seem to care if any of their own number died. After all, why bother to protect your fellow sorcerers when their ghosts could serve you just as well?

The pale forms of the dead Wise reformed in the midst of their comrades, chanting with hollow voices.

They were no longer sending Youkai spirits to attack Inuyasha---they were sending their own.

`Crap,' Inuyasha thought as he lay about him with Tetsusaiga. `I can't kill the dead ones, and Tetsusaiga's kenatsu doesn't seem to repel the spirits of the WISE. . .'

He couldn't use the sword to keep them all away from Sesshoumaru, and he was more afraid of what the Wise might be capable of with a Shikon shard than he was of the fey, icy touch of the dead.

So he began to run.

The speed granted to him by his Youkai blood seemed to outstrip the floating/flying capabilities of the dead sorcerers, and it certainly outstripped those of the living Wise. Thus with his unconscious brother in tow he took hasty leave of them, and finally burst free of the Temple's crumbling halls and into the carnage outside.

The ground was littered with human debris---dead sorcerers and dead soldiers and dead women and even the tiny crushed forms of dead children. Inuyasha dragged Sesshoumaru across it all, feeling that this was somehow appropriate. After all, it had been Sesshoumaru who had made all this mess. The white demon's clothing and hair, which had been soaked with his own blood, now became saturated with the blood of those he'd slaughtered.

Sesshoumaru was heavy. Glowering, Inuyasha tugged his brother's ankle and dragged him through the puddles of viscous poison. To Inuyasha's acute disappointment, however, the poison had no effect whatsoever, and only succeeded in tinting Sesshoumaru's new red look purple.

The vapor, meanwhile, stung Inuyasha's nose and made his eyes water. He flung up the arm bearing Tetsusaiga and pressed it against his eyes to keep it out of them as he plowed through the vapor. When he had cleared the poisoned areas, he removed the arm, and what he saw then made him drop Sesshoumaru's foot. The white demon's leg landed on the stones with a thud---Sesshoumaru was very heavy.

"Shit," Inuyasha breathed. "KAGOME!"

The gray-eyed sorcerer stood over Kagome and Miroku, who crouched on the ground, looking stunned.

"INUYASHA!" Kagome cried, never taking her eyes off her opponent. "It's NARAKU! He's taken the SHARDS!"

Naraku didn't even glance at Inuyasha but swiped downward with the bone knife in his hand. He moved with demon speed, but Miroku moved first, raising his staff in time to block the blow. Kagome, shielded by the monk's body, gasped and attempting to crawl backward, but she was half-paralyzed with fear and didn't get far.

The sorcerer's knife shed sparks as the two weapons met. In a flash Naraku had pulled back his hand and stabbed downward again, only to find himself blocked once again by Miroku's staff. The force of the blow vibrated down the length of it, jangling the rings at the top.

The corners of Naraku's lips lifted in a cruel smile, and Miroku glared at him.

Then, in a flash, the monk flung Kagome aside and unwrapped the Wind Tunnel in his hand. With equal swiftness, Naraku produced a small, round hive from the folds of his robes (which, voluminous as they were, could apparently contain any number of things). He held it out to Miroku as if offering a gift.

"Go ahead," Naraku urged the monk, who seemed to be hesitating. "Take it and die."

Miroku's face flushed as he rose slowly to his feet.

"I don't care, as long as I take you with me," he said in a low voice.

"Miroku, you CAN'T!" Kagome warned. "He has the SHARDS!"

"Miroku, don't you DARE!" Inuyasha shouted.

The monk half-turned in surprise as Inuyasha launched himself past and slashed viciously at Naraku with his sword. Naraku dodged the blow, seeming unruffled, and Tetsusaiga struck the stone pillar behind him instead. While he wrenched it free, Naraku seized the opportunity to put some distance between them, running at breakneck speed back toward the Temple.

"He's running?" Kagome asked, watching the demon's progress. "Why? He's got the shards---he shouldn't be afraid to fight us. . ."

Miroku watched with narrowed eyes.

"Perhaps he's vulnerable in that body he's in," the monk told her. "It is a human body, after all and---"

Miroku didn't have time to finish the sentence because at that moment Inuyasha came barreling into both of them, hauling them a good twenty feet before letting them go. The pillar from which he had wrenched Tetsusaiga had been cracked nearly in two, and the building was collapsing.

"What the FUCK were you two WAITING for?!" Inuyasha bellowed at their astonished faces. "I leave you alone for HALF AN HOUR and. . ."

"Thank you, Inuyasha," Miroku said calmly, while Kagome laid a placating hand on the hanyou's arm.

Embarrassed, Inuyasha chose to ignore their gratitude and instead focused his scowl on the fleeing, gray-robed form.

"Naraku," he growled. "Hope you're ready to die. . ."

He lunged forward, pelting toward his enemy with Tetsusaiga upraised.

"Inuyasha, WAIT!" Miroku called after him. "This might be a trap!"

"LIKE I GIVE A DAMN!" Inuyasha yelled back.

Through the vapor rising around the Temple there shown the greenish lights of Tatesei sorcery.

"Inuyasha, the Wise are---!" Kagome cried, but Miroku stepped in front of her, raising his right hand and flinging aside the prayer beads that bound it.

"KAZAANA!" he shouted.

Then things began to happen very quickly. The Wind Tunnel began to draw everything back toward Miroku. This included a barrage of debris and corpses, a cloud of poisoned vapor, and Inuyasha, who had been caught by surprise and had not had time to cement himself to something.

From behind Miroku Kagome could see that Naraku had been flung to the ground as the wind sucked his feet out from under him. He remained fastened where he was, however, because he had jammed his dagger hard into the earth. With the other hand, Naraku reached into the folds of his robe and tossed the Saimyoushou hive into the gale. Miroku didn't see it coming, but he had already closed the Wind Tunnel to prevent Inuyasha from being sucked in.

"YOU BASTARD! I AM GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS FOR THIIIIIIIIIS!" Inuyasha bellowed as he went hurtling past. The Wind Tunnel's momentum still had hold of him.

"I had to stop you from charging in blindly," Miroku told him, sidestepping to avoid being crashed into. He cast a grim eye toward the green lights beyond the screen of vapor. "The Wise are coming."

The Saimyoushou hive struck the ground hard and burst, releasing a torrent of the buzzing, whining creatures.

Miroku watched with great misgivings.

"I can't use my Wind Tunnel any more," he said worriedly.

"Damn," Inuyasha swore.

"You. . .will not. . .use it. . .again. . ."

All heads turned at the sound of this new voice, coming from the direction of the vapor.

"That's---?" Kagome and Inuyasha said at once.

Through the veil of poison, Sesshoumaru rose steadily to his feet.

"He's still alive?" Miroku murmured, nonplussed.

The white demon stood at his full height, still drenched in blood but glaring at the monk with a fierceness that indicated he wasn't going to die anytime soon.

`That's right,' Inuyasha thought. `He still has the shard. Damnit, I should've taken it even though it's. . .'

"Fool! You will not use that attack again," Sesshoumaru repeated, taking a step toward them. "Or that hand will find itself detached from its owner before you can utter a word. . ."

`S---SCARY. . .' Kagome thought, drawing back.

Sesshoumaru's face was twisted with anger. None of them had seen him wear an expression like this. . .none save Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha," he said, in a voice low and menacing. "Call off this fool of a monk." He lowered his head, eyes burning. "Or is it nothing to you that the souls of our kin will be flung into the void?"

Inuyasha, who had just pried Tetsusaiga from the ground, did not raise it but stood there stunned. Once again he realized that Sesshoumaru was right---how could he have been so careless? Was he so human that he didn't care if his demon kindred's souls were cast into darkness?

But of course he wasn't about to admit that Sesshoumaru was right while standing in front of Sesshoumaru, so he threw out a red herring:

"While YOU'RE yakking Naraku is fucking ESCAPING!"

"Oh! He's disappeared through the vapor!" Miroku exclaimed.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed.

"Has he?" he said softly.

Kagome, whose gaze was fixed upon the screen of poisoned fumes, said in a quavering voice, "The Wise are coming."

{#} {#} {#}

Through the veil of poison stepped the ranks of the Wise. They seemed to glide---like their dead comrades, who remained bound beside them by the invisible chains of sorcery. Their faces, hooded and fey, were focused now on the small group before them. Their eyes upon those they meant to kill were the eyes of humans, yet utterly devoid of human warmth. Naraku stood among them. His hood had been blown back from his face, revealing the violet eyes that burned through Reikotsu's grim countenance.

Shakily, Kagome rose to her feet, preparing to run. To her right, she heard Miroku gasp.

"This is why he fled from us," the monk breathed. "He didn't want to fight us, because that would mean giving up the human body he's possessing. . . And that would mean the Wise finding out that he's tricked them. . ."

A light bulb flared in Inuyasha's brain. He frowned (light bulbs were a rare occurrence).

`Then THIS means. . .' he thought, gripping Tetsusaiga's hilt more firmly.

"He's afraid of them," Kagome finished his thought out loud. "The Wise could take his soul, and he knows it!"

"Heh!" Inuyasha laughed to himself. "He's used them to set a trap for us, but he may have gotten more than he bargained for!" He slung Tetsusaiga over one shoulder. "HEY NARAKU!" he jeered. "ISN'T USING PUNY HUMANS AS ATTACK DOGS BENEATH EVEN YOU?!"

The Wise did not react to this heckling, having no clue who Naraku was. Naraku's eyes blazed, and Reikotsu's mouth curved upward in a cruel, thin cross between a smile and a grimace of disgust.

"Kill them all," he ordered. "The two white demons first---they would destroy this city." His gaze flickered as it came to rest upon Sesshoumaru. "That one possesses a shard of the Shikon Jewel. Take it from him."

To everyone's surprise, Sesshoumaru laughed softly.

"Fool," he said. "I do not need the shard to defeat you."

"Heh," Naraku murmured. "Brash words from a man who's drenched with his own blood." To the sorcerers around him, he said, "Do it now."

The Wise began to chant.

"Naraku," Sesshoumaru said calmly. "Why should the Wise serve you? The Tatesei do not serve under demons. I wonder. . .how long can you keep that human form. . .with my claws at your throat?"

With lightning speed Sesshoumaru flew at the line of sorcerers, clearing the entire distance in one bound. Demon souls flew at him. Naraku did not transform.

"I wonder," Sesshoumaru murmured, as he arced down toward his prey, "if afterward they will force your soul to serve them?"

"KILL HIM!" Naraku demanded through Reikotsu's lips. He did not break rank with the Wise.

Sesshoumaru was almost upon him when the voices of the Wise rose in intensity. From the Temple there emerged a great Inu Youkai spirit---a great giant of a beast, larger still than Sesshoumaru's transformed shape. It caught him mid-air, and flung him backward, pinning him to the ground. With its teeth and one great paw it pressed him into the dirt, snarling and gnashing its fangs.

"Idiot," Inuyasha muttered, watching his brother writhe beneath the demon's claws.

"Arrogant fool," Naraku called to Sesshoumaru. "That soul has fed on so much of your life-force that it has gained substance. You can't pass through it this time."

It seemed that Naraku spoke the truth. The Inu Youkai soul was not the pale, glowing shade that the others had been. It looked opaque and almost alive, except for around the edges, where its form wavered and blurred against the gray sky. And Sesshoumaru lay trapped beneath it, seemingly unable to throw it off. It had become a solid, real opponent, and strong as the Great Demons of old had been.

To a few of the sorcerers Naraku ordered, "Go. Finish him and take the shard. Once we have gathered all the shards, these infidels will be powerless!"

Some of the Wise left to do his bidding. The others closed rank around him, suddenly a new barrage of spirits flew forth from the Temple, heading for Inuyasha, Kagome and Miroku.

"Brace yourselves!" Inuyasha shouted to his friends. "It's going to get REAL cold in a second!"

"Not if I can help it!" Miroku told them.

He stepped in front of Inuyasha and Kagome before either one could protest. When the distance between Miroku and the attackers had all but closed, he raised his staff. For the briefest of instants, the air between Miroku and the demons crackled and groaned. Then a hemisphere of light arced overhead, forming a kind of protective shell over the three mortals. The demons swarmed over it, clashing against it in a fury. Sparks flew from where they struck it, but they could not penetrate it.

Muttering a fervent prayer, he withdrew several oufuda from the folds of his robe, plastering them on the barrier's surface. Now the demons that attacked the hemisphere drew back with howls of rage at its touch.

But they would not retreat.

"I can't hold this forever," Miroku warned his friends. His face looked pale and strained. "I was attacked earlier when we rescued Asano, and I fear much of my strength has been drained."

"Just hold on," Inuyasha told him fiercely. "We'll think of something. . . Kagome, what the HELL do you think you're DOING?!"

She had moved to the edge of the barrier, and had just stepped through it and into the seething mass of souls outside. Instantly they enfolded her, obscuring her from view.

"KAGOME!!" Inuyasha cried.

"KAGOME-SAMA!" Miroku echoed him, alarmed.

{#} {#} {#}

Though neither Inuyasha nor Miroku could see it, Kagome stood not three feet beyond the barrier. The spirits rushed around her body like a tornado. She trembled at their icy touch, embracing herself, but after a moment she forced herself to remember why she was doing this. Slowly she unfolded her arms and reached out with them.

`I come from a line of priests,' Kagome thought desperately. `I have the blood of a great miko in my veins. If I can lay these souls to rest. . .'

But her prayers were lost to the clamor of souls. The demons passed through her like water through a sieve, and her body quickly went numb. She felt herself falling.

And then strong arms cut through the freezing darkness to enfold her. She collapsed into them, drawn into that place of warmth and safety against him.

"Inuyasha," she murmured.

"BAKA!" he hollered into her ear, temporarily drowning out the shrieking spirits. "What the HELL did you think you would do?"

One of his arms crushed her against him. The other held Tetsusaiga. Kagome could see it blazing now, shining through the hurricane of souls. And she saw them draw back from the sword, as if they feared it.

"Tetsusaiga is---" she began, but Inuyasha pulled her roughly back through the barrier, to safety.

"Inuyasha," Kagome tried again, once they were inside, but Inuyasha let go of her and she sank to her knees.

"There'll be no more of that," he commanded, glowering down at her.

"Tetsusaiga---" Kagome insisted, but broke off, shuddering. The demon's chill remained with her.

"These aren't restless souls like Mayu was," Inuyasha told her sternly, referring to the poltergeist child that she had once calmed and saved from hell. "Believe me, they want to pass on, but the Wise won't let them."

"I know now," Kagome replied, nodding. "I felt it from them. And I don't think I can do anything for them."

Inuyasha's expression softened.

"They should be free," he said. "The Wise shouldn't hold them back."

Again Kagome nodded solemnly.

The moment was broken by Miroku's frantic warning.

"I can't hold the warding much longer!" he groaned. The great effort of holding the demons at bay had dropped him to his knees in the dirt.

The barrier's light began to dim.

With growing urgency, Inuyasha cast about him for some way out of this.

"We need some way to get the Wise to draw off the attack," Miroku said. The first of the oufuda fell from the barrier's surface, fluttering gently to the ground.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said suddenly, doing an abrupt about-face. "Can you see the jewel shards through all those?" He waved a hand toward the demons swirling around them.

Kagome frowned and went silent for a moment, and then her eyes widened in surprise.

"I can," she exclaimed. "The light they give off is still visible."

Inuyasha nodded, and without further ado turned and disappeared through the barrier's sphere of protection. His form was obscured by the twisted, seething gale of souls.

"INUYASHA!" Kagome screamed. "COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE ME!"

"INUYASHA!" Miroku cried.

For what seemed an eternity they watched the place where he had disappeared. Behind them, another oufuda fell, unnoticed. Then they saw Inuyasha returning, his body outlined in the blazing light of Tetsusaiga's kenatsu. He walked slowly but steadily, and after a moment he appeared through the barrier. He sank to one knee, breathing hard and using the sword to prop himself up.

In the other hand, he carried a bow and a quiver with three arrows in it.

Kagome just stared at him, agape with relief, anger, and surprise.

"You want me to try to shoot Naraku?" she asked, once she had found her voice again. "Even though all I can see are the shards themselves?"

"It's the best hope we have," Inuyasha answered wearily. Kagome didn't like his weariness. He had been exposed to the demon souls far more than she had, and it was a testament to his strength that he was still breathing.

"He's right," Miroku told her. His voice sounded very strained, as if he were trying to hold up a very heavy weight. "What other choice do we have? My strength is almost gone, and Inuyasha seems to be the only one of us who's somewhat immune to the spirits' killing cold."

Inuyasha held up the bow and Kagome took it from him. With the other she grasped an arrow from the quiver. But when she tried to notch it, pain flared in her broken right arm.

"I can't do this," she told him.

To her right, another oufuda fluttered earthward, and the barrier dimmed further. The air within the hemisphere was becoming very cold---all of them could see their breath in it.

"Do it, Kagome-sama," Miroku warned. Sweat streamed down the sides of his face. "Before the warding fails!"

Gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut, Kagome swung her arm upward and notched the arrow. The maneuver was clumsily done, but had been enacted with enough force so that the arrow did not slip from its position of readiness. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes; the pain was terrible. It shot from her elbow to her shoulder, and also to her fingertips.

"Have to hit," Kagome whispered fiercely.

She tried to draw back the arrow, but her hand lost its grip, crippled by the fire shooting through her nerves. The arrow did not fall, but the shaft tilted downward, no longer aimed toward the shards, which she could still see even with her eyes shut.

But then, once more, he stood behind her.

"Inuyasha," Kagome murmured. She had not thought he had the strength to stand.

Yet now with one hand he lifted the afflicted arm, holding it steady so that she could notch the arrow properly. Inuyasha's other arm stole beneath her other arm and held it fast to the bow, so that her left hand would not shake the bow and spoil her aim.

Kagome straightened her back and steadied herself against him. Then she shot the arrow forth.

{#} {#} {#}

Beneath the awesome weight of the Inu Youkai soul, Sesshoumaru fought for breath. His vision grew dark as one of the demon's fangs impaled him further, pinning him to the ground. The Wise were approaching. He could smell them---he had never encountered any other mortal with the scent of stone tombs and of old, dusty crypts.

Thoughts flowed through his head disconnectedly. He was a young man, standing alone upon a battlefield strewn with corpses beneath a moon like a cruel, staring eye. He was a full-grown demon, crushed beneath the claws of a dead kinsman. He was young again, wandering hills blanketed with snow, his mind given over to the freedom of his demonic form.

Then, forcibly, he returned his mind to the present.

`The demon is solid,' he thought to himself. `It is real. It pierces my flesh. . .can I not also pierce the flesh of the demon?'

A deep and abiding ache stirred in his gut---completely independent of the demon's fang.

"Forgive me," he whispered to the one above him. Then he called upon the poison in his claws and rammed them upward into the belly of the beast.

{#} {#} {#}

Naraku, who had been watching the light of the monk's warding waning beneath the cloud of demon souls, turned abruptly as the Inu Youkai attacking Sesshoumaru let out a howl of rage. It reared its massive head skyward, tearing the fang free of the one below it. Its paw lifted from him also, but this was in preparation for a killing blow.

And then, to Naraku's immense surprise, he felt a sudden burning pain in his side. The arrow had fallen short of its mark---the shards thrust into the flesh of his chest---yet it had done its work.

The Wise directly in front of him, who had formed a protective screen for him, had been killed. The arrow had passed through those in its path---had it not it might well have pierced Naraku's heart.

The sorcerers around him, turned to glance at him in utter shock.

"Send MORE demons to attack Inuyasha," he hissed them, gritting his teeth. "They aren't dying FAST enough!"

But the voices of the Wise fell silent.

A gust of wind blew Naraku's hair across his face.

His black hair.

The sorcerer nearest him, the one who had remained at his side for all this time, raised a hand to Naraku's face.

"You. . .are not Reikotsu," he said softly.

Naraku recovered himself and smiled slyly.

"No," he answered. "But I have what I've come for. And you will destroy the Inu Youkai brothers, and the girl, and the monk, whether you do it to serve your interests or mine."

"How powerful you are," the sorcerer whispered, withdrawing his hand from Naraku's cheek.

Naraku's smile vanished.

"You have exhausted your supply of souls upon the enemies below," he said, lip curling with scorn. "You dare not challenge me with the remnant."

The sorcerer backed away from Naraku, wearing an expression as chilling as the spirits' touch.

"In your ignorance," he said, "you have thought the Temple was our only source of power? Had you learned more of us, you would know. . ."

The ranks of the Wise began to chant once more, and suddenly the sky glowed green.

"I am called Honechi," he told Naraku, with a slight, mocking bow. "Allow me to bid you proper welcome. . .to Reiyama, the City of Ghosts."

{#} {#} {#}

As the last oufuda fell, and the barrier collapsed with it, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome with one arm and the bow and quiver with the other. He and Miroku ran directly through the midst of the demon cloud. The souls seemed to fall back from Tetsusaiga's kenatsu, and with it Inuyasha was able to hold them at bay until he and his friends had reached an opening. The demons, of course, came howling after.

Yet even as Inuyasha embraced Kagome to shelter her from what he believed to be the last assault he would survive, the demons flowed past. He looked up, and saw to his immense relief that they had moved on to a much livelier enemy.

Ahead of him, Naraku was battling the Wise---living and dead---in his true form: the roiling, ever-shifting mass of flesh, from which limbs protruded as scythe-like blades. Brutally, he fought his way free of the sorcerers' midst, and with a rapid hurtling motion flung himself toward the place where Sesshoumaru had just thrown off the Inu Youkai's ghost.

"He's going to take Sesshoumaru's shard!" Kagome cried. "He knows he can't win, so he's going for the last of the shards and then he'll escape!"

A great multitude of spirits now brightened the horizon. Kagome's heart sank at the sight of them. But Inuyasha grinned and said, "Feh. Not if I can help it!"

He sprinted away at breakneck speed, moving to intercept Naraku.

The Saimyoushou, Naraku's poisoned insects, had long since fallen prey to the demon spirits, and the air was clear. Miroku turned toward the Wise and called out in a strident voice: "Call off the souls, or I shall use my Wind Tunnel to hurl you into the void!"

Honechi stepped forward.

"You won't use your hand, Honorable Monk," he said calmly. "Because you will condemn the Inu Youkai souls to the void as well. You seem to be a good man. The spirits spared you once." Honechi raised his hand skyward, the strange green light making a stone mask of his hard, chiseled features. "Take the girl and leave, and we will spare you. Our quarrel is only with the white brothers."

Miroku began to raise his staff. Honechi's gaze flickered.

"You cannot hope to give the souls release," he warned. "That is something that only the Wise can do, and it must be done willingly."

Miroku placed a firm hand on Kagome's shoulder.

"NO!" she cried, trying to shake him off. "WE'RE NOT LEAVING HIM HERE! WE'RE NOT LEAVING HIM!"

"Leave now and live," Honechi continued inexorably. "Accept it. The Inu Youkai Line is about to be broken beyond all repair, that our city might live. . ."

{END OF CHAPTER 10}

Reader: O_o

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